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Friday, May 26, 2017

During my sabbatical from blogging, I have not taken a vacation from writing!

Perhaps the best way to introduce the new e-book edition of God's Pleasure At Work& The Difference One Life Can Make is through a review posted in The Green Room, here.John Beckett, Chairman of The Beckett Companies and author of Loving Monday, calls God'sPleasure At Work, "the finest and practically helpful publication ever produced on this subject."During the past school year, this e-text was field-tested at a Christian school in Kansas, with high school students. Below are comments from students in that class:

"[This course] has really helped me with so many things and taught me more than I ever imagined learning in this class."

"I have learned many things about the nature of work, God's purpose for it, and how a Christian should view it. These lessons will not only serve me well in my future career, but shape how I go about the day-to-day tasks of the present."

"I really love how this book shows us that we should not look at life a sacred and secular, but rather everything that we do can either be for the glory of God or contrary to His will. We should not divide the different sections of our lives into sacred and secular, but think that whatever we do can either be in harmony with God's design or in conflict with it."

"…I have benefitted so much from this class…Dr. Overman delivers his points clearly, with accuracy to Scripture. I would highly recommend the Theology of Work material and class to everyone at [name of school]."

"...I learned so much personally that I cannot wait to use in the future and share with others. I believe all Christians should read this book and soak in all the goodness just like our class did over the course of this year."

The book is not just for high school students! It is for adults of any age and stage of life.

It contains over 50 video clips to bring the content to life.

To purchase a copy, click here. (Scroll down the page until you see the title of the book.)

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

We don't
find meaning in learning, we bring meaning to learning. If we can, that
is.

“Whatever!” seems to be a common bored attitude of children toward
school. Bribes, threats, and lures of a future well-paying job fail
to inspire them. This is to be expected, if we fail to give them a
compelling reason for their very existence.

All sons and daughters are
endowed before birth with a remarkable mandate from God. It's a mandate
that brings extraordinary meaning to education. The Lost Purpose for
Learning explains what that mandate is, and why it brought about such an
extraordinary level of flourishing for people in the United States.

Yet, it has been neglected for the past 150 years. This new book, The Lost Purpose for
Learning, explains what the lost purpose is, and how
it can be restored to education at all levels.

Friday, May 13, 2016

In the early 1500's, Geneva was called “the smelliest city of Europe.” The
walls of the city were in disrepair, the people were poor, and families were
falling apart. The condition of the church was deplorable. Proof? Priests operated
houses of prostitution.

The people ran the bishop of Geneva out of town in 1530. William Farel, a French
evangelist, came in 1531. Preaching in the marketplace, Farel cried out, "We
must reform the church in order to reform the nation!"
In 1535 the electors of the city voted unanimously, and courageously, to proclaim Geneva a Reformed
Protestant city. I say courageouslybecause, as Thomas Bloomer
notes in Calvin and Geneva: Nation-Building Missions, "they were risking
excommunication and eternal damnation."

Farel sought out John Calvin, imploring him to come to Geneva to apply the
theology he had written about in Institutes
of Religion:"May God curse you and your studies if you do not join me here in the work He has called you to!"

Calvin came to Geneva at the age of 27, and rebuilt the city on three
principles:

1. Preaching the Gospel: "...so that people would be saved and
start to be transformed and the church would be restored to biblical
purity."

2. Teaching: "...so that people would know how to live, the
authorities would know how to govern, and all would know how to work in their
different spheres."

3. Accountability: "...so that the teaching would not just be
theoretical but applied in all areas of life."

Calvin taught that a "holy vocation" included the work of the
banker and the shoemaker. Bloomer writes: "Calvin told the bankers they couldn't charge high interest rates, as
that was the sin of usury in the Bible….The 4 percent interest rate lasted for
four centuries in Switzerland, and this practice was one of the long-term sources of Switzerland's prosperity."

Geneva became a model city for theology of work in practice. It became known as, “the
city on a hill.” John Knox came to study what Calvin was doing, and took what
he learned back to Scotland. England was also influenced by Geneva, and eventually
brought this influence to North America.

We should all know the full story. It can be found in Thomas Bloomer’s essay, Calvin and
Geneva: Nation-Building Missions, published in His Kingdom Come
(YWAM Publishing). Bloomer's essay contains many lessons we could all use a refresher course
on about now. Click here.

Applications for the WRAP are now being accepted for the 2016-17 school year. The
number of schools we can acceptis limited. Early
applicants have a better chance of receiving grant funding.

For details click here. To set up a time for a personal conversation to discuss the program, use the Worldview Matters contact page, indicating the best day, time and phone number to reach you, here.

Dean also relayed:

"Our enrollment has grown by 10% since last year
(and is still growing--we have families still actively participating in the
enrollment process for this year). When I was asked to what do we contribute
this growth when enrollment is dropping at Christian schools in our area, I had
a good answer. 'People are hearing about our efforts to elevate the level of
biblical worldview integration and incorporation of theology of work in our
classrooms, and are responding to it.'"

Below is a clip of Mrs. Greer, 5th grade teacher at Dean's school, having a conversation with students on the topic of ecosystems and work:

Friday, April 22, 2016

Chuck Colson
founded the "Centurions Program" in 2004 for the purpose of equipping 100 followers of Christ per year to “live
out their faith authentically in the world.” I was privileged to
participate in the 5th group of Centurions, in 2009, and I'm glad I did.

For many years, it was only possible to participate in the Centurions National Program, but now there are five additional Affiliate Programs as well. These Affiliate Programs are located in Washington State, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin and New England. Applications are now being accepted for the 2016-17 year, and I urge you to seriously consider this opportunity.

I know the leaders who are heading up the Washington State Affiliate, and I commend them to you. This Affiliate will be meeting monthly on the campus of Northwest University, in Kirkland. The fee for the Washington Affiliate Program is $750 for the year. If you have questions about the Washington State Affiliate, contact my friend Steve Hunter at WAHunters@comcast.net, or call him at 714-501-6527.

Dr. Joseph Castleberry, president of Northwest University, has stated: “The
Centurions Program, in our view, is consistent with our mission of
‘carrying the call of God by building a learning community dedicated to
spiritual vitality, academic excellence, and empowered engagement with
human need.’To
this end, we see the University as not just the physical campus but the
community at large. Our hoped-for affiliation with Seattle Centurions
is one important way for the University to ‘carry the call of God’ to
the community, while in turn drawing the community to the opportunities
for enrichment offered by the University.”

Participants in the Centurions Program are exposed to a curriculum of important books and films,
with access to online discussion forums with nationally-known speakers, such as Joni Eareckson Tada and John Stonestreet.

Friday, April 15, 2016

In the United States, serious discussion is now going on about whether or not we should allow males who think they are females to use women's bathrooms and shower rooms, and vice versa. This includes allowing students in elementary and secondary schools to make the same choice, depending on which "identity" they choose. If you live in the contemporary West, this conversation is coming to your town soon.

How did we get to this point?

The answer is found in Romans 1:18-32. The contemporary West has gone the way of the ancient Romans, who went the way of the ancient Greeks before them. We (I use the term in a general sense) have "suppressed the truth in unrighteousness" for the past 150 years, and God has now given us over to a way of thinking that can only be described as "futile," "foolish," and "darkened." These are the apostle Paul's terms.

Professing ourselves to be "wise," as the most esteemed thinkers of our age have thought themselves to be (I am referring to the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, William James, John Dewey and Jacque Derrida), we have become fools.

A new video clip of students being interviewed on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Washington (produced by the Family Policy Institute of Washington), proves the point beyond any shadow of doubt. Among other critical issues, the video addresses the question of whether a 5'9" white man who says he is a 6'5" Chinese woman is wrong─or not. You must see it to believe it.

Friday, April 8, 2016

The Church around the world just celebrated Easter. And in case you did not notice, music was a big part of that celebration.

You can tell a lot about a worldview by the kind of music it produces.

If you visit a Muslim
mosque, you will not see an organ or a piano. Nor an acoustic guitar. No choir will sing, nor the congregation. Why? Because devout followers of Mohammad believe
music is heram, which means "illegitimate." Some mosques make an
exception for vocal sounds that come out sounding like non-melodic
chants. Westernized Muslims are not as strict when it comes to music, but in traditional Islam (by this I mean "fundamentalist" Islam), music-making is intentionally absent.

Buddhists view life as a cycle of suffering caused by human desire. Salvation, for the Buddhist, is escape from suffering through extinction
of desire. Joy To The World
is not something you would hear in a Buddhist temple. Life is not
something you celebrate. There is no personal God to sing about. The closest thing to music coming out of a Buddhist's vocal chords would be a single-note drone. Some Buddhists incorporate Western-style music into their practice,
but this is a relatively recent phenomenon, introduced by Westerners converted to Buddhism.

Do you know of any music stores with a section called, "Pure Hindu Hits?"

Westerners take melody and harmony for granted.
But "Western" music did not spring from a vacuum. It came from a Christian motivation that viewed music as a way of worshiping the Almighty God who dresses flowers with more colors than a King's
robe. It came out of a worldview of hope and joy, which produced harmony and melody as a means of praise, thanksgiving and celebration.

Yes, "Western" music came out of Christian worship. Worship that birthed single-voice melody called “Plainsong”
[which later developed into Gregorian Chant] starting in the 3rd century, then in the 9th
century developing into two-voice melody, and eventually polyphony
[multi-voice music]. Out of this came Handel, Bach, Beethoven, and that remarkable phenomenon we now call “Western" music.

The next time you download that favorite song from i-Tunes,you can thank a Christian monk. Better yet, thank the living God who inspired the monks who worked to develop polyphony. Then think about what this world would be like if Christ had never been born.

In this post I have committed the unpardonable postmodern sin. I have compared the Christian worldview with others, and found the others to be wanting. In postmodern times, all worldviews are supposed to be equally good. Frankly, I don't buy it. The music tells a different story.

Friday, April 1, 2016

The Yanghwajin Cemetary in Seoul, Korea,
was designated in 1890 as a site for burying foreign missionaries by
Emperor Gwangmu, the first Emperor
of the Korean Empire. [Photo by Matthew Smith, used under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.]

In the secularist view of development today, Christianity is not always
seen as a positive contributor to the cause. That’s because it is often stereotyped as “institutional”
rather than community-oriented, and relegated to “private inspiration”
rather than seen as a player in public life.

The history of Korea, however, tells a different story.
In the late 19th Century, Korea was mostly
illiterate, without roads or railways, power or sewer systems. But beginning in 1884, a movement of Christian missionaries took place, mainly coming from the USA, England, South Africa and Canada.

These missionaries played a significant role in
shaping Korean history. From the hundreds of schools these missionaries established, future leaders of
Korea came.

A couple of years ago, I was privileged to visit the Yanghwajin Cemetery in Seoul. Among the 376 graves of foreigners, 145 belong to missionaries and their families. A brochure for the
cemetery said: “Abandoning promising
careers back home, they came to share the light of the Gospel with ‘Corea’
which was then unknown. The missionaries profoundly influenced Korean society,
not only by establishing hospitals and schools, but by affecting its intangible
values, thus contributing to the abolition of the class hierarchy in old Korea.”

Elmer L. Towns and Douglas Porter, in their book, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever, report that the missionaries required adult converts to
learn to read Korean before admitting them to church membership. To
distinguish Christians from collaborators with the Japanese who later invaded and occupied Korea, "the patriots required Christians to
recite chapters from the Bible to prove they were Christians. The result
was a 100 percent literacy rate among Christians in a largely
illiterate nation. Their ability to read made Christians the natural
leaders of the Korean society."

Christianity “caught on” in Korea. The Koreans took to the Bible like
kids in a candy store. I’m not sure of all the reasons for this, except to say it
was a move of the Holy Spirit, beyond human orchestration. Men and women of God left places of greater comfort to come to a far off land in need, and as a result, they discipled a nation.

Now you know "the rest of the story."

I took this
photo of the gravestone of Canadian medical missionary Robert A. Hardie. My guide let me know this man made a
public confession of sin which started a movement of repentance among
Christians in Korea known as the Wonsan repentance movement of
1903.

H. B. Hulbert is said to have "loved Korea more than Koreans did."

H. G.
Appenzeller established the Pai Chai School, which "produced many
capable men who served the Korean people based on the values of the
Gospel." He helped with the Korean translation of the Bible.

A
pioneer of Korean Christian education was William M. Baird. The school
he started in his living room grew into a university.

M. F.
Scranton, a pioneer of education for women in Korea, came to Korea at the age
of 52, from the USA. She passed on at the age of 76, having dedicated
herself to spreading the Gospel and the betterment of Korean women for
the last 24 years of her life.

Friday, March 25, 2016

In school, there is no shortage of what to learn. The shortage is why.

Followers of Christ in the United States are coming to the sober realization that the biblical foundations for law, civil government, economics, and family that once provided commonly accepted harbor lights for society have been replaced. An incessant move toward the secularization of society and the privatization of Christianity that took place in the 20th Century was enormously successful, being expedited through elementary and secondary schools.

My biggest concern about young Christians being indoctrinated through secularized education is not that they will become atheists. My biggest concern is that they will become Christian dualists. Even inadvertently through unwary Christian schools.

A Christian dualist is one who sees the Bible as relevant to one's personal life, or to the affairs of the church, but not relevant to what goes on in the Monday-through-Friday workplace. Christian dualists don't mix the biblical world-and-life view with driving a truck, painting a house, or managing a bank, because they didn't mix it with biology, art, or math. Regrettably, the reason many Christian schools don't practice this is because the teachers have not been taught how. It is a learned skill that is not included in the teacher training programs of universities today.

Worldview Matters is on a mission to restore a biblical view of work and human flourishing to the Christian school curriculum, from preschool through high school, so students are equipped to engage in something grand, beyond themselves, yet in the here-and-now, by engaging in work of all kinds, both present and future, as the very work of God.

The Worklife Restoration and Advancement Project, or as we like to call it, the "WRAP," is a vigorous program for whole schools, not just individual teachers. Applications for the WRAP are now accepted for the 2016-17 school year. The number of schools we are able to accept into the WRAP is limited. Early applicants have a better chance of receiving funding. Applications are due May 1.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Is
it possible for the Bible to be taken seriously once again in places
where it has been rejected? Once they have been removed from the schoolroom walls, can the Ten Commandments be put back up? Could a place that has swallowed secularism ever spit it out?

If things get bad enough, the unthinkable can happen.

During seven decades, Ukraine was ruled by the Soviet Union, and atheism was the law
of the land. Persecution of Christians was the order of the day. Yet after Ukraine gained independence in 1991, some extraordinary things took place.

Thirteen
years after Ukraine gained independence, I was invited by a
Ukrainian public school superintendent to teach his staff how to
integrate the biblical worldview into the regular curriculum of their schools. Yes, a public school superintendent, overseeing 16,000 students and teachers in a city of 125,000, invited me
to provide training in biblical worldview integration for leaders of the city's 21 public schools.

Was I dreaming?

When I first received this invitation, I did not believe
the superintendent understood what he was asking. I figured he would be fired from his position. To make sure he understood what he was asking, I spent
three hours in the superintendent's downtown office, going over the basic content of the
course I teach on biblical worldview and how to embed it into academic instruction.

To my
amazement, here I discovered a man on a mission to restore
Christianity to the next generation. He told me: "Teaching Christianity is more important than academics."

Why?
Because he saw Christianity as necessary for restoring Ukraine's moral
compass. He understood
the consequences of such a loss, and he knew how those bearings could be restored.

I
invite you to take a look at what I witnessed in the city of Uzhgorod, in the far western reaches of Ukraine. Take a short video tour of one of these schools with me here.

This
photo was taken the day I spent several hours in the office of
the Superintendent of the Uzhgorod School District going over the
content of the training course in biblical worldview integration I would
be providing for the administrators of his 21 schools.